JPH02293161A - Thermal printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform printing in an appropriate drive condition even with different types of ink ribbons by a construction wherein an ink ribbon is applied with an information pattern representing a printing drive condition in compliance with said ribbon, and each driver is driven on the basis of the drive condition read by a sensor mounted on a carriage. CONSTITUTION:An ink ribbon 13 is applied with an information pattern 18 representing a printing drive condition in compliance with said ink ribbon 13. A sensor 19 reading the information pattern 18 is mounted on a carriage. A controller for driving each driver on the basis of the drive condition read by the sensor 19 is provided. The information pattern 18 on the ink ribbon 13 is read by the sensor 19, and each driver is driven in accordance with the drive condition represented by the information pattern 18. Therefore, printing can be conducted in an optimum drive condition, which can be automatically set in accordance with the ink ribbon 13 of every type. Even if the ink ribbon 13 differs in type, it is ensured that a proper printing can be performed.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a thermal printer, and in particular to a thermal printer that enables printing using various ink ribbons under appropriate driving conditions depending on each ink ribbon. Regarding printers.

[Conventional technology]

6 and 7 show a conventional general thermal printer, in which a guide shaft extending parallel to the platen 1 is installed in front of an elongated flat platen 1 fixed to the frame of the printer (not shown). A carriage 3 is loosely inserted into the guide shaft 2 so as to be able to reciprocate along the platen 1. A head mount 4 is attached to the carriage 3 and can freely move toward and away from the platen 1. A thermal head 5 is mounted on the head mount 4 facing the platen 1. has been done.

A drawer bobbin 6 and a take-up bobbin 7 are rotatably provided on the upper surface of the carriage 3, and the take-up bobbin 7 is connected to a ribbon drive motor 8 disposed within the key 1ν ridge 3. is connected.

Drive pulleys 9 are provided near both ends of the guide shaft 2.
A slave pulley 10 and a slave pulley 10 are respectively rotatably arranged, and a key 1/ridge spinning motor 11 which can be driven in both forward and reverse directions is connected to this drive pulley 9. A drive belt 12 whose both ends are connected to the carriage 3 is wound around the drive boob 9 and the slave boob 10, and the moeki carriage driving motor 11 is rotated to rotate the drive boob 9. By driving the drive belt 12 through the guide shaft 2, the carriage 3 is moved to the guide shaft 2.
It is designed to be driven back and forth along the

Further, a ribbon cassette 14 in which an ink ribbon 13 is stored is mounted on the upper surface of the carriage 3 so as to be engaged with the drawer bobbin 6 and the take-up bobbin 7. , a part of which is exposed to the outside from the ribbon cassette 14 and guided so as to be positioned on the front side of the thermal head 5.

In the conventional thermal printer, first, the head mount 4 is moved toward the platen 1, and the thermal head 5 is pressed against the platen 1 via the ink ribbon 13 and paper (not shown), respectively. Thereafter, the ribbon drive motor 8 is driven to rotate the winding bobbin 7 to wind up the ink ribbon 13, and the carriage drive motor 11 is driven to drive the drive belt 12 via the drive bobbin 9. By doing so, the carriage 3 is moved along the platen 1.

In this state, the ink ribbon 1 is
3 facing the thermal head 5 and selectively generating heat from the heating element of the thermal head 5, the ink on the ink ribbon 13 is partially melted and transferred to the paper, thereby making it possible to perform desired printing. can.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the conventional thermal printer, desired printing can be performed using a variety of ink ribbons 13, such as an ink ribbon for plain paper, an ink ribbon for OHP paper, or a Manoredzilar ink ribbon. Therefore,
For example, when using the ink ribbon for plain paper, it is necessary to peel off the ink ribbon 13 while it is molten, move the carriage 3 and wind up the ink ribbon 13 at high speed, and When an ink ribbon for OHP paper is used, it is necessary to peel off the ink on the ink ribbon 13 after cooling and move the carriage 3 at low speed.
It is necessary to change the driving conditions of the printer depending on the type of printer.

Conventionally, the setting of such drive conditions has been done sequentially by the user operating a predetermined operation switch, etc., so the setting operation is extremely troublesome, and it is difficult to set different drive conditions. If the ink ribbon 13 is closed, there is a problem in that printing cannot be performed under appropriate driving conditions depending on the ink ribbon 13.

The present invention has been made in view of these points, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a thermal printer that can easily and reliably print under appropriate driving conditions even when different types of ink ribbons are used. This is the purpose.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the thermal printer according to the present invention includes a kisser ridge on which a thermal head is mounted so as to be movable back and forth along the platen 1, and a ribbon cassette in which an ink ribbon is housed on the carriage. is mounted, the thermal head is pressed against the platen 1 via the paper and the ink ribbon, and while the carriage is moved, the thermal head is made to generate heat based on desired print information to ink on the ink ribbon. In a thermal printer that performs desired printing on the paper by melt transfer, an information pattern indicating print drive conditions corresponding to the ink ribbon is formed on the ink ribbon, and a sensor is provided on the carriage to read the information pattern. , is characterized in that it is provided with a control device that drives each drive device based on the drive conditions read by the sensor.

(Function) According to the present invention, the information pattern of the ink ribbon is read by the sensor, and each drive device is driven by the control device based on the drive conditions based on this information pattern. The printer can automatically set the optimal driving conditions and perform printing under these appropriate driving conditions, and therefore can easily and reliably perform appropriate printing even when the type of ink ribbon is different. It is.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a ribbon cassette applied to a thermal printer according to the present invention. Inside the ribbon cassette 14, a V-ridge (not shown) is engaged with a take-up bobbin and a drawer bobbin. A pair of cores 15.1
5 is rotatably arranged, and the ribbon force Lt1
An exposed recess 16 is formed in the center of the front end of 4 to accommodate a thermal head (not shown). The core 15 of the ribbon cassette 14 also includes an ink ribbon 13.
is wound therein, and inside the ribbon cassette 14 there are a plurality of guide rollers 17.1 for guiding the ink ribbon 13 so that a part of it is exposed outside from the exposure recess 16.
7... are arranged.

Furthermore, the head portion of the ink ribbon 13 is provided with a seal as shown in FIG.
As shown in a), an information pattern 18 in the form of a barcode, for example, in which driving conditions corresponding to the ink ribbon 13 are recorded is formed on the carriage, and as shown in FIG. 13 information patterns 18
A sensor 19 for reading the ink ribbon is disposed so as to face the ink ribbon 13 inside the ribbon cassette 14 when the ribbon cassette 14 is attached. Note that the information patterns 18 of the ink ribbon 13 may be formed at regular intervals on the side edges of the ink ribbon 13 other than the ink layer forming part, as shown in FIG. 2(b). Further, the sensor 19 may be used in common with a sensor for identifying each color of the multicolor ink ribbon 13 on which a plurality of ink layers are formed, for example.

FIG. 4 shows an embodiment of a control device for controlling the drive of a thermal printer according to the present invention.
The sensor 19 is connected to the CPtJ20,
A RAM 21 for storing driving conditions from the sensor 19 is connected to the CPLJ 20 . The CPLJ 20 also includes a drive υ1 for controlling a motor 22 such as a carriage drive motor and an ink ribbon take-up motor of the carriage, each heating element 23 of the thermal head, etc. based on the drive conditions stored in the RAM 21.
One circuit 24 is connected.

The information pattern 18 is used, for example, ink ribbon for plain paper, ink ribbon for OHP paper, monochromatic black ink ribbon, multicolor ink ribbon on which ink layers of a plurality of different colors are formed, or for only one printing. It shows driving conditions corresponding to various ink ribbons 13 such as one-time ribbons and multi-type ribbons used for multiple printing, and these driving conditions include key 1? The moving speed of the ridge,
These include the winding speed of the ink ribbon 13, the peeling conditions of the ink ribbon 13, the pressure contact force of the thermal head, the paper feeding speed, etc.

Therefore, for example, in the case of an ink ribbon for plain paper, it is necessary to peel off the ink in the ink ribbon 13 while it is molten, and move the carriage and wind up the ink ribbon 13 at high speed. An information pattern 18 is formed that indicates a peeling condition that shortens the distance between the heating element of the ink ribbon 13 and the peeling position of the ink ribbon 13 from the sheet, and a driving condition such as moving the carriage at a high speed. Furthermore, in the case of an ink ribbon for OHP paper, the ink on the ink ribbon 13 must be peeled off in a cool environment, and the carriage must be moved at a low speed, so the peeling distance of the ink ribbon 13 is increased. An information pattern 18 indicating peeling conditions and driving conditions such as moving the V-ridge at low speed is formed.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG. 5.

In this embodiment, first, when the ribbon cassette 14 is mounted on the main carriage, winding of the ink ribbon 13 is started in step ST1, and then in step ST2, the information pattern 18 formed at the beginning of the ink ribbon 13 is When the start pattern is detected, step S
At T3, the information pattern 18 on the ink ribbon 13 is read by the sensor 19. Next, in step ST4, the read signal of the information pattern 18 is sent to the CPU 20, and the CPLI 20 identifies various drive conditions from the read signal and stores them in the RAM 21. Then, in step ST5, when the end pattern of the information pattern 18 of the ink ribbon 13, which is formed with a small radius, is detected and it is recognized that the information pattern 18 has ended,
Proceeding to step ST6, the winding of the ink ribbon 13 is stopped, or the ink ribbon 13 is wound in the opposite direction.

Next, when the predetermined print data is input, the C P
The drive conditions stored in the RAM 21 are read by U 2 0 and sent to the drive control circuit 24 . The drive control circuit 24 drives the key 1/ridge drive motor, the carriage's ink ribbon winding Tanabata motor 22, the heating elements 23 of the thermal head, etc. based on the drive conditions. being done.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the optimum driving conditions can be automatically set according to various ink ribbons 13, and printing can be performed under these appropriate driving conditions. Appropriate printing can be easily and reliably performed even if the printing is different. Also,
As shown in FIG. 2(b), when the information pattern 18 is formed on the side edge of the ink layer of the ink ribbon 13,
Even if the ink ribbon 13 is in the middle of being used, the driving conditions can be read by the sensor 19 according to the type of the ink ribbon 13, which is extremely effective when replacing the ribbon collar 1-14 in the middle of use.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments,
Various changes can be made as necessary. for example,
The information pattern 18 may have a structure other than a barcode shape.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, in the thermal printer according to the present invention, the information pattern of the ink ribbon is read by the sensor, and the control device drives each drive device based on the drive conditions based on this information pattern. It is possible to automatically set the optimal drive conditions according to the conditions and perform printing under these proper drive conditions.Even if the type of ink ribbon is different, there is no need for the user to set the drive conditions one by one, making it easy to use. This provides effects such as being able to perform proper printing quickly and reliably.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 to 5 show an embodiment of the present invention,
Fig. 1 is a plan view of the ribbon cassette, Fig. 2(a). (b
) are respectively a front view of the information pattern portion of the ink ribbon, FIG. 3 is a front view of the ink ribbon and sensor, FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of the control device, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of reading the information pattern of the ink ribbon. , Fig. 6 is a $l view of a conventional thermal printer, and Fig. 7 is a copy of Fig. 6.
It is a perspective view of a ridge part. 13... Ink ribbon, 14... Ribbon cassette,
15... Core, 16... Exposed recess, 17... Guide hole, 18... Information pattern, 19... Sensor, 20... CPLI121... RAM, 2/l...
・Drive control circuit. Applicant's agent Shunsuke Nakao Figure 2 (a) Figure 3 Figure 5 Figure 4 Figure 6

Claims (1)

[Claims] A carriage on which a thermal head is mounted is disposed so as to be able to reciprocate along a platen, and a ribbon cassette containing an ink ribbon is mounted on the carriage, and the thermal head is mounted on the platen to carry paper and the ink. A thermal printer that performs desired printing on the paper by pressing the ribbon through the ribbon and moving the carriage while generating heat in the thermal head based on desired print information to melt and transfer ink on the ink ribbon. In this step, an information pattern indicating printing drive conditions corresponding to the ink ribbon is formed on the ink ribbon, a sensor is provided on the carriage to read the information pattern, and each drive device is activated based on the drive conditions read by the sensor. A thermal printer characterized by having a control device for driving the printer.